Karzai rips strike he says killed 95

August 24, 2008|By Carlotta Gall, The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai on Saturday strongly condemned a coalition airstrike he said killed as many as 95 Afghan civilians -- including 50 children -- in a village in western Afghanistan on Friday and that his government would be announcing initiatives to prevent such heavy loss of civilian life.

Government officials who traveled to the village of Azizabad in Herat province Saturday said the death toll had risen to 95 from 76, making it one of the deadliest bombing strikes on civilians in almost seven years of the war.

The account of Friday's airstrike by Afghan officials conflicted with that of the U.S. military, which said coalition forces had come under attack in Azizabad, a village in the Shindand district of Herat province, and had called in an airstrike that killed 25 militants, including a Taliban leader, Mullah Sadiq, and five civilians.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the commander of coalition forces, has ordered an investigation into the episode, said the public-affairs officer, 1st Lt. Richard K. Ulsh.

"Coalition forces are aware of allegations that the engagement in the Shindand district of Herat province Friday may have resulted in civilian casualties," a statement issued from Bagram Air Base read. "All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very seriously. Coalition forces make every effort to prevent the injury or loss of innocent lives."

The dead included 50 children, 19 women and 26 men, said Col. Rauf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the police chief of the western region.

A presidential aide who would not be identified said the Interior Ministry and the Afghan intelligence agency had reported from the region that there were no Taliban present in the village that night. The Afghan National Army, whose commandos called in the airstrike along with American Special Forces, were unable to clarify their original claim, he said.

A tribal elder from the region who helped bury the dead, Haji Tor Jan Noorzai, said people in the village were gathered in memory of a man who was anti-Taliban and was killed last year and that tribal enemies of the family had given out false information.

"It is quite obvious, the Americans bombed the area due to wrong information," he said by telephone. "I am 100 percent confident that someone gave the information due to a tribal dispute. The Americans are foreigners, and they do not understand. These people they killed were enemies of the Taliban."